Your first PC Gaming Rig

[templar1138a]

I don't know what the price of my first gaming PC was. After all, it was an Apple II that my dad had gotten his hands on a few years before I was born.

Off-topic: Discover can kiss my ass.

 

[The_Lost_King]

My first pc was in 2009 I think. It was pretty crappy and costed $700-800(not sure, it was a Christmas present). It could handle anything on medium up to about 2011 - 2012. I can't really tell you anything specific about it because I was not involved at all in buying it. It played most games I wanted fine, but as gaming got more demanding it just couldn't handle it.

 

[thejackyl]

AMD Duron 800 MB Processor
128 MB DDR RAM
FIC AN19E Motherboard
ATI All-In-Wonder 32 MB Graphics Card
10 GB Hard Drive
Floppy Drive

That's the first PC I built. First one I had was a really old one that had a green screen. I don't know what kind it was, I was 3 or 4.

 

[MercurySteam]

I don't even want to talk about my First PC (piece of overpriced Dell shit) however here's my latest one:

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I cant work out whats going on in that pictre.....are those two graphics cards? what are those things on the mother board?

yes I'm a computer noob

Good eye, those are 2x GTX 570s (overclocked). As for the mobo, not really sure what you're referring to but the most obvious things is the massive CPU cooler with dual 140mm fans.

 

[Jak2364]

I'm using my first gaming PC as I type this actually. Just finished building this last September. I guess I can't really comment on my best price/performance ratio since this is my only gaming computer. Anyways, It has:
I5 3570k
MSI R7870 HAWK OC
8GB G.SKILL RAM (Thinking about getting some more, just so that I can say my computer has more RAM than the PS4 xD)
ASRock Z77 Extreme 6 Motherboard
1TB HDD
60GB OCZ SSD (Came with my motherboard)
120GB ADATA SSD
LG Blu-Ray Reader/Burner
Xigmatek Card Reader
In total I think it cost around $1200.

 

[Vault101]

Good eye, those are 2x GTX 570s (overclocked). As for the mobo, not really sure what you're referring to but the most obvious things is the massive CPU cooler with dual 140mm fans.

ah yes....the big fans they look like theyve been slapped on there with tape and carboard amongst all the shiny electronics

just out of interest whats the difference in performance between 2 mid-low range cards vs one High range card?

 

[Damy]

One of those colorful MACs upgraded from 32MB of ram to 64MB to be able to play the Diablo 2 expansion. It was bad.

 

[Kinitawowi]

Excluding the ZX Spectrum and later Amstrad CPC 6128 I had, the first proper gaming PC I had regular access to was my Dad's, a machine he picked up from some of the money he received in compensation after being on the wrong end of ABH.

It was absolutely BEAST for the time; a 486SX 33Mhz (we managed to pick up a DX emulator for it), with 4Mb of RAM, and a 130Mb hard drive - upgraded to 210Mb by the shop after the first one turned out to be faulty. Also two floppy drives, a Creative Labs SB16 sound card, and - most amazingly of all among my peers - an SVGA card. DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1, naturally, although we configured up Quikmenu to handle all the DOS stuff (I can still remember the serial number for that program), and even had it boot to multiple menus from CONFIG.SYS for the three games that needed EMS memory to run and the seven that needed specially stripped down memory builds. Later upgraded to an SB Pro, a 2x CD-ROM drive (we spent fourteen hours trying to make that fucker work - you had to run it through the sound card in those days - just so we could play Command And Conquer), and eventually a 7200 baud modem (and much later, a 56.6K).

 

[Dryk]

The only PC I've personally built is the one I'm still using, it has a i5-2500K and a GTX 560 Ti and cost ~$AU1100 not including the monitor, speakers, keyboard which I already had

 

[MercurySteam]

Good eye, those are 2x GTX 570s (overclocked). As for the mobo, not really sure what you're referring to but the most obvious things is the massive CPU cooler with dual 140mm fans.

ah yes....the big fans they look like theyve been slapped on there with tape and carboard amongst all the shiny electronics

just out of interest whats the difference in performance between 2 mid-low range cards vs one High range card?

The fans may indeed look tacky but they're perform quite well in terms of cooling and low noise.

As for the cards, there are many factors to consider when it comes to SLI/Crossfire setups. More cards means more power draw, space taken up, noise and heat. Multi-card setups don't always scale very well (though in most cases it's with games that don't require much graphics processing power) and some people can even notice microstutter. However, the technology is improving all the time and with the introduction of PCIe 3.0, it's never been easier to squeeze out every last drop of performance you can from these setups. Along with that, performance per watt has been dramatically reduced e.g. two GTX 660Ti cards can be powered by a decent 600W PSU. I like the idea of having multiple cards because it means I can buy a card then wait 6-12 months and by another one, which means I only really need to purchases new GPUs every second release of a series as opposed to every series (and still have blistering good performance, and usually a cheaper second card to boot).

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

It was 386

Ran DOS mostly, did have windows 3.1 installed a little later, but dos was better

1 meg of ram

2 3.5" floppy drives

I upgraded it quickly to a CD ROM player and 2 meg of ram (that was showing off back then) and put in a sound blaster

Hard drive was tiny....I cant recal spec but not a lot

Man, thoese were the days

 

[Weaver]

My first... was probably a 386 way back in the day.
I didn't BUILD it, (I was too young) and I have no idea how much it cost, as my parents bought it.

Keep in mind, it was a family machine; not mine alone.
The first computer I bought all on my own money, built and was mine was probably around the year 2000? I honestly don't remember lol.

 

[Oltsu]

huh....

is that a computer without a case laying on its "side"?

It's a test bench. I can't really use a closed case because of my cooling system and I also happen to chance the hardware so often that a normal case would be somewhat annoying

It's probably the bulkiest and most impractical thing in the world but I like it.

 

[Easton Dark]

It's a test bench. I can't really use a closed case because of my cooling system and I also happen to chance the hardware so often that a normal case would be somewhat annoying

It's probably the bulkiest and most impractical thing in the world but I like it.

Oh my gosh the dust would get on everything, all the time, oh that'd be my nightmare of a PC to have.

I much prefer my little Dragon here. I keep him closed up and hidden away so none of that dusty dust gets near him.

 

[rapidoud]

$1300 for my best price/performance.

Asus p5k-e mobo
$80 logitech 5.1 speakers
4850 for $220 (in 2008; 2005 was some nvidia GPU that broke and I went onboard for 2 years)
Some corsair (iirc) PSU that has no labels on it
intel core 2 duo 6 something
WD 250GB HDD I think

Some other stuff too like keyboard, CPU heatsink and stuff I can't quite remember.

That was back in 2005; before that I used my parents computer and it essentially became mine for gaming as my brother got his laptop for school in 2003 (high school).

Now I have an intel core 2 quad (since '08), another HDD (Samsung 250GB, still got my WD), an SSD, my brother's mobo (although mine is in the media PC now), same speakers, same PSU (although I need a batter one as this one isn't coping), a new monitor (had a viewsonic that had some stuck pixels on it; had a samsung 2333sw for years now), Sapphire 7970 (just bought).

I like to stay in the high-ish region of game performance; not enthusiast level like 1440p monitors or 120Hz or 3D or tri-monitors; just enough so my games look great. If pixel density starts increasing then I'll grab a new monitor.

My rig would've stayed very cost-efficient if I went with a 7850 (around $200 like the 4850) and overclocked but the never settle bundle tempted me.

 

[Bostur]

For everyone talking oldschool, I got you all beat: a TRS-80.

Thats pretty old school. I can't beat that but I can get close: a Commodore Vic 20. Although whether it can be considered a PC is arguable. But it was a gaming computer with a keyboard.

Now where did that tape with Missile Command go...

 

[Archangel768]

First "gaming" computer? Or first computer that I got to play games on?

If it's the latter, then that would be my first pc ever as a birthday present when I turned 8.
486 100mhz CPU, 8-16mb (can't remember exactly) 540mb hdd, 1mb video card? 14" monitor etc

First "gaming" computer? That would be my current desktop. After a decade I finally have my first job and I can afford to build a current up to date computer for the first time.
i7 3770k 3.5ghz, 8gb 1600mhz ram, 3tb hdd, 500gb hdd, 128gb ssd, 2tb external, GTX 660ti video card, blu ray drive, 27" 3D IPS Dual Play monitor, 23" monitor, 21.5" monitor, 5.1 surround sound.
All up probably cost close to 2000.

 

[wabbbit]

As in the first PC I played games on that I actually owned (Or rather my family..)

AMD Duron 800mhz, a stonking 128mb SDRAM, CD-Rom drive and an insane 20GB of storage. That think lasted a good few years before I gave in and bought my own PC in about 2004(ish). The latest game that I ran on it was CnC Generals which was only getting about 20FPS. Saddening.

Before that I think it was an upgraded 33mhz(at least thats what it said, may have been 333mhz) Win95 custom build my grandad picked up in '98 from work, hardly any RAM, under 1GB hard drive and a TON of floppy disks.
best thing about it was the TURBO button on the front which stepped up the processing power. Playing RCT, London Racer and Monstertruck Madness was my life one summer.... never worked out why someone wouldn't have TURBO turned on...

When I bought my own system in 2004(ish) it was:
- AMD64 3000+
- 1GB DDR2
- Some AMD 128mb graphics card
- DVDRW
- 80GB HDD

A long way off the overclocked 3570k I run these days

 

[New Troll]

First "gaming" PC was a Commodore 64/128. No hardrive. Ran the games straight from memory. I fondly remember putting in my Fairy Tale Adventure disk, typing RUN, and then heading outside to play for a couple hours while it loaded. Those were the days...

Best price... hard to say since most every PC I've ever had has been partly new and partly re-use of components. I've built machines, but never truly from scratch. Usually, since I work electronics retail, I will wait for a decent rig to go on clearance, pick it up for half price (or lower,) and then dissect the hell out of it to reassemble it as my own. Very rarely do I spend over $400, but that's not including all the reused parts nor the labor of love.